The novel begins as the voice of a mature adult recalling events from childhood and sometimes shifts to the point of view of a six-year old. Did you notice the shifts occuring? If so, did you find them distracting? How are these perpectives - the knowing adult's and the innocent child's - developed in the narration? What advantages did the author have as a result of being able to move from one perspective to the other?
W. E. B. DuBoise speaks of "double-consciousness" - the sense of having to look at oneself through the eyes of others. Which characters in To Kill A Mockingbird are basically forced to look at themselves through the lens of others, being expected to behave as other people want them to behave?
Do you believe that the sense of "double consciousness" is still strong in our present society? That is, to what extene are people of different ethnicities, social classes, genders, and age levels essentially defined by others today? To what extent do you feel that you are forced to behave according to other's views of you? How are yo affected when others define you? Consider how the person doing the defining is affected.
Is some measure of "double consciousness" inevitable in human relations and in society? Why, or why not?
TKAM POV
To Kill a Mockingbird Point of View Activities
mhs resources
POINT OF VIEW